It could actually be an unpaid Minnesota holiday if you didn’t know better. There are lots of days on the calendar that Minnesotans look forward to, but they don’t hold a candle to the Minnesota Fishing Opener.
As the time wound down ahead of the big day, anglers in garages everywhere got ready to holler “Start your engines,” like a NASCAR race.
I really used to be one of those die-hard anglers who would do things I won’t even consider today. I was on the water at midnight in both Minnesota and Iowa for one of the many walleye fishing tournaments held over opening weekend.
I even finished third in the Great Walleye Weekend on Big Spirit Lake in Iowa about a lifetime ago.
I once unloaded my boat on the border waters of Big Stone Lake after we shoveled about five inches of snow out of it.
I still like to fish and purchased a new kicker motor for my old Alumacraft Trophy 17 this spring. It was the only 9.9 horsepower motor made by Yamaha that I could find in about five states.
One of my favorite fishing opener pastimes, assuming the weather is good, is to sit on a lawn chair at a busy boat landing and watch the circus unfold.
I have seen just about every folly and mistake you can imagine.
There is the new rule in Minnesota that you cannot trailer your boat with the boat’s drain plug in it. This is to ensure you are not transporting water from one lake to another — to slow the spread of invasive aquatic species of both animals and vegetation in live wells, boat hulls, etc.
Forgetting to put the plug back in before launching into the lake is a common mistake, and now it’s very common. Sooner or later you will see the boat heading to shore to bail out the boat or wait until the bilge pump catches up.
I have seen boat trailers with their wheels half down on the dock.
Others will forget to remove the rear trailer tie-downs, and the wind will blow their boat parallel to shore. There is no way to pull it out now without a good cold water wading seminar.
Probably the best one I can remember was an older guy landing his small fishing boat, and it took him 10 minutes to crank the boat up onto the trailer in 15-second increments of physical exertion. After the line of other boaters got impatient, he got in the truck and slowly drove out of the ramp, unaware that his boat winch was not secure.
As he drove off slowly, boat — in slow motion — gently slid off the trailer onto the ground. When the winch ran out of rope, the boat dragged behind the truck on the ground with the motor leaving a plow furrow about four inches deep. Lots of folks were hollering to help him, but he paid no mind and drove out of the ramp and unto the street about 100 yards away. The boat cut the corner and missed a parked car by only a few inches.
He stopped to transfer his gear in the truck, and when he came to realize what had happened, the first thing he did was to look around to see if anyone had seen him.
Without flinching, he just started cranking on the hand winch, declining lots of offers to assist. About four rest breaks later, he had the boat on the trailer and was on his way.
I had another incident in a Canadian shield lake where a member of our party unloaded their boat in a river flowage and the motor would not start. My friend, the owner’s son, asked him what was up, and the dad responded that it ran good last year when he put it away.
They drifted five miles before the other boat returned from a supplies trip to a distant cabin to tow them to home base. The engine never did run on that weeklong trip.
Enjoy your time angling on the lakes this summer, or grab a lawn chair at a busy boat ramp.
You might capture a video that goes viral if some unfortunate soul really steps up their unpreparedness game.
Scott Rall, Worthington, is a habitat conservationist, avid hunting and fishing enthusiast and is president of Nobles County Pheasants Forever. He can be reached at scottarall@gmail.com. or on Twitter @habitat champion.